Albany, NY—Freshman midfielder David Baraniuk (Budd Lake, NY/Mount Olive) scored a game high four goals and assisted on three others as The Sages Colleges men's lacrosse team downed SUNY Cobleskill, 13-4 Saturday at ACP Field. This was the first home victory in program history, as the Gators improved to 2-2 in their first season. The Fighting Tigers are now 1-2 for the year.
Freshman attack Eric Fairhurst (Wooster, OH/Wooster) scored three goals and assisted on another for Sage, while junior attack Austin Seymour (Albany, NY/Maple Hill) also scored three times. Freshman attack Matt Fisher (Niskayuna, NY/Colonie) tallied twice with an assist and freshman Rich Everoski (Farmingville, NY/Sachem East) added a single goal for the Gators. Freshman midfielder Robert Martin (Saugerties, NY/Saugerties) joined Baraniuk with a game high three assists. Freshman goalkeeper Brandon Maresca (Landing, NJ/Roxbury) made 13 saves in the victory.
Ed White led the Fighting Tigers with two goals and an assist, while Kiran Tierney and Sean Degnan each scored once and Josh Johnston also had an assist. Willie Wilson had 10 saves for Cobleskill.
The team numbers were close, as Cobleskill had one more shot (35-34) but Sage had one more ground ball (36-35). Sage won 11 of the 21 faceoffs and was successful on 18 of the 29 clears. The Gators also scored on three of the five extra man opportunities.
A man-up goal by Baraniuk with 1:44 left in the first quarter gave the Gators a 2-1 lead, and it remained a low scoring affair through the first half as Baraniuk later gave Sage a 4-1 lead with 55 seconds left in the half. But Sage opened up the game with six straight goals in the third quarter, including three straight by Fairhurst from 10:00 to 4:28, and Sage led 10-1 after Fisher tallied with 46 seconds left in the period. Each team scored twice in the fourth and the scoring was capped by White's goal for the Tigers with just 17 seconds remaining.
Sage is home again on Monday to host Mitchell College at 2 p.m. This game was orignally scheduled on March 4. Cobleskill is at SUNY Delhi on Tuesday, March 19 at 12 p.m.
